Informal Rental Housing in Delhi: Affordable but Inappropriate

Abstract

Housing affordability is a relative concept determined in relation to income. With respect to rental housing, affordability is commonly measured using the ratio of house rent to tenant income. Using this approach, many studies, including those conducted in Delhi, have found that informal rental housing is affordable for most tenants. However, this approach masks other issues, such as adequacy, amenities and accessibility, which, together with affordability, determine housing appropriateness. Therefore, this study compares different dimensions of housing appropriateness across different levels of housing affordability. Based on primary data collected through a semi-structured questionnaire survey using a multistage sampling method, the study reveals that, alongside rent affordability, tenants have reasonably good accessibility from their homes to their workplaces. However, irrespective of the level of rent affordability, tenant households compromise considerably on housing adequacy and amenities. The study also finds that, in some cases, house rents depend on the availability of housing amenities; however, rent unaffordability (although it applies to only a small proportion of tenant households) is not due to the households paying relatively high rents to gain access to different housing amenities, but rather to their very low income levels.